[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 18


NEPAL/CHINA:

Nepal asks China to review death sentences to Nepalese


Nepal has asked its northern neighbor China to review the death sentences
handed down to 2 Nepalese citizens for smuggling arms and ammunitions, the
government said Friday.

The government has requested the Chinese government "to make arrangements
to review the verdict...so that the Nepalese people are not awarded
capital punishment," the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a press release.

(source: Kyodo News)






GHANA:

Abolish Capital Punishment Says Supreme Court Nominee


A Supreme Court nominee, Justice Felix Michael Lartey has argued that
death sentence should be expunged from our statute books because it is not
serving any purpose.

Appearing before the 25-member Vetting Committee of Parliament on
Wednesday, Justice Lartey said punishment for 1st degree felony was meant
to be a deterrent to others but has failed to do so.

He said instead of passing death sentences on people who have committed
murder or other offences, like treason, which attract capital punishment,
the offenders should be confined at a condemned place to die naturally.

"Capital punishment serves no useful purpose now because it has been
carried out many times but the offences have not stopped recurring.

"Killing is brutal and I think where a person is found guilty of a first
degree felony that person should be kept somewhere for the rest of his
life to suffer natural torture," he said.

Justice Lartey is a justice of the Court of Appeal with 30 years standing
at the Bar.

He served in the Gambia from 1994 to 2002 as a judge and became Chief
Justice of that country from 1999 to 2002. Justice Lartey disagreed with
ongoing views that the 1992 Constitution must be amended; he however said,
"the constitution has not been tested for a reasonable length of time so
we should give ourselves sometime.

Nothing has occurred to prompt us to jump into amendment."

On the abolishment of the Council of State by certain quarters in society,
Justice Lartey said it is an important institution that must be maintained
because the Council does not "only advise the president but the chief
justice and parliament."

Justice Lartey was of the view that it would be erroneous to assign chiefs
to preside over minor judicial cases because he said, "they are saddled
with lots of issues," hence they would not be able to adduce good
judgment.

Another Supreme Court nominee, Justice Julius Ansah disagreed with Justice
Lartey's assertion over mandating chiefs to handle minor cases. He said as
a result of the large number of cases in the court chiefs should be
empowered to preside over minor cases.

He said chiefs have the "wisdom and experience" to adjudicate as
prevailing in Botswana.

Justice Ansah said the defunct land courts must be re-instituted to be
able to dispose of the backlog of land cases at the courts. He said the
Alternative Dispute Resolution should be encouraged to also help reduce
the number of cases at the courts.

Justice Ansah said it would be dangerous to limit the number of Supreme
Court judges because "it would be a ready pool from which judges would be
picked."

Justice Ansah is a judge of the Court of Appeal with 25 years standing at
the Bar. He was appointed District Magistrate judge in 1979 and
subsequently rose through the ranks to his current position.

The next person to be vetted was Justice Richard Twum Aninakwah who
contended that the retiring age for judges to the Superior Court must be
revisited because old age, according to him, "increases the knowledge of
law. Age should not be a bar to judges' work."

He said there was nothing wrong with the state funding political parties
because it would give everybody a fair chance to take part in politics.
Justice Aninakwah said the law, Wilfully Causing Financial Loss to the
State, was not a bad law because it would continually keep public
officials on their toes.

Justice Aninakwah is an Appeal Court judge with 34 years experience. He
studied Banking and Law in the UK and was called to the Inner Temple in
1969. He was called to the Ghana Bar a year after.

He entered into private practice until 1994 when he was called to the
Bench as a High Court judge.

(source: All-Africa News)






RUSSIA:

Senators doubt idea of reinstating capital punishment


Sergey Ivanov, the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council's
commission for cooperation with the Audit Chamber, told RBC that he did
not approve of the idea of reinstating death penalty in Russia, commenting
on the respective proposal of some deputies of the State Duma.

"It is difficult to say if the reinstatement of death penalty will have an
effect that it is expected to have. In fact, I support tough, radical
measures for fighting terrorism," he declared. "However, I am not sure
that death penalty would be an adequate punishment for terrorists. I
rather agree with those who believe that death penalty is not a severe
enough punishment in comparison with life sentence."

At the same time the senator remarked that the number of supporters of
capital punishment had been increasing in connection with the tragic
events in North Ossetia. He did not rule out that as a result, the
lawmakers would still make a decision to cancel the moratorium on capital
punishment and to allow death penalties.

(source: RosBusinessConsulting News)